Police said Friday that they are investigating two school vandalism incidents in south Orange County to determine whether they were the work of two adults and a juvenile arrested on suspicion of trashing campuses in Capistrano Unified School District.

The state has ordered the Saddleback Valley Unified School District to stop clearing and draining one of the last remaining natural wetlands in the growing South County or face possible criminal prosecution. The district allegedly violated state Fish and Game codes on March 27 when workers began clearing a marshy stretch of cattails and willows in a neighborhood of estate-sized homes in the Nellie Gail Ranch area, according to a state Department of Fish and Game report obtained by The Times.

A California affiliate of Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group, held a 30-person protest Wednesday outside the Saddleback Valley Unified School District headquarters, decrying the district's decision to ban service clubs to avoid recognizing a Christian group. Earlier this month, the district announced that it would no longer recognize 29 service clubs at four high schools.

The city and the Saddleback Valley Unified School District will sponsor a trip for teenagers to inner-tube down snowy mountains and play miniature golf in Big Bear on March 25. To reserve a seat on the bus to the mountains, call the district before March 20 at (949) 768-0981, Ext. 3. The trip costs $35 per person.

High school students will soon be able to letter in roller hockey under a proposal expected to be approved tonight by Saddleback Valley Unified School District board members. Dozens of student athletes and parents have been packing board meetings in support of the proposal since the Irvine Unified School District approved roller hockey as a "club sport" in September. The board meets at 7 p.m. at 25631 Diseno Drive. Information: (949) 580-3330.

. . . Eleven-year-old Channon Phipps, a hemophiliac who became the first California student barred from a public school for being HIV-positive, returned to Rancho Canada Elementary School. A judge ordered Saddleback Valley Unified School District to reinstate Channon, who said after his first day back: "It was nice to be just one of the kids again." Source: Times archives

Parents of three children are suing the Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach, contending that school officials wrote a "glowing" recommendation for a teacher even though they suspected him of acting inappropriately around young boys. The 27-year-old teacher, Jason Abhyankar, went on to a position in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District and since has been charged with four criminal counts of molesting fourth-grade boys in both school districts. He has pleaded not guilty.

Parents of three children are suing the Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach, claiming that school officials wrote a "glowing" recommendation for a teacher even though they suspected him of acting inappropriately around young boys. The 27-year-old teacher, Jason Abhyankar, went on to a position in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District and since has been charged with four criminal counts of molesting fourth-grade boys in both school districts. He has pleaded not guilty.

Raising questions about whether school districts can ban Christian student clubs, a state appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit filed by a Mission Viejo teen whose effort to create a Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter was rejected by school officials. A lower court threw out the suit before it went to trial, ruling that the Saddleback Valley Unified School District was within its right to prohibit clubs with religious affiliations from meeting on campus.

The date has been changed for the "Memorial Celebration of Life" to honor the late Peter A. Hartman, superintendent of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. Hartman died Jan. 20 from complications after kidney surgery in late December. The gathering, which was originally scheduled Feb. 8, will be held at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Mission Viejo High School, 25025 Chrisanta Drive, Mission Viejo. Last year, Hartman and James A.

Services for Orange County educator Peter A. Hartman, who died at age 63, are set for Saturday in Mission Viejo. Hartman, superintendent of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, died Saturday at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, almost a month after emergency surgery to remove a cancerous kidney. Last year, Hartman and James A. Fleming, superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District, shared honors as state Superintendent of the Year.

The second-graders at Trabuco Mesa Elementary School recently received a sad lesson in the uncertainties of life: Even a seemingly all-powerful grown-up like their superintendent can fall seriously ill. Just two days after visiting to read stories to the Rancho Santa Margarita second-graders, Peter A. Hartman was fighting for his life after undergoing emergency surgery to remove a kidney.

What if your neighbors called you every time they saw your teenager running a red light? What if the bus driver greeted your child by name every morning? What if your family sat down to a healthful dinner at a beautifully set table every evening? What if sprawling, balkanized south Orange County were transformed into a giant, Norman Rockwell-style small town?

Four Orange County curricular programs are among 46 across California that will be honored Saturday by the California School Boards Assn. The Saddleback Valley Unified School District is the county's big winner and will take home two Golden Bell Awards from the annual statewide meeting of school board members, scheduled this weekend in Long Beach.